


Pagophobia

by pluto



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-15
Updated: 2010-06-15
Packaged: 2017-10-10 03:36:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pluto/pseuds/pluto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack's reluctance to go ice-skating is more than a fear of looking undignified.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pagophobia

"Nine hundred years old," Jack says to the Doctor, "Travelled all over time and space, inordinately fond of humans, and you've never gone ice skating? Impossible!"

They're watching Rose skate from the warmth of a lean-to for non-skating cowards like themselves. The Doctor takes a bite of the steaming banana-in-a-bun (a local delicacy) he picked up at a nearby stand and shrugs. "You've travelled all over time and space too, Time Agent, and _you_ can't skate. Had a hard enough time convincing you to come out of the TARDIS!"

The Doctor has a point, but Jack deflects. "I'm from the Boeshane Peninsula!"

"So?"

"So, it's like a giant beach! I think that makes me allergic to winter worlds."

"All right. In that case, I'm allergic, too, then."

"C'mon, Doc! I bet Gallifrey--" Jack cuts himself off when he sees the emotional shutters slam down behind the Doctor's eyes. He has time to say, "Sorry," before Rose skates up to the chest-high wall of the ice rink.

"Come on, you two!" she calls, waving at them with her pink-mittened hand. "Stop being such babies! Come skate!"

The Doctor raises his banana-in-a-bun and says "Eating."

Jack snatches the dessert from him, sending up a cloud of powdered sugar, and says "Me too!"

Rose somehow manages to convey her exasperation via a little twirl on the ice. "It's sooo easy," she says. "Come on!" She holds out both of her mittened hands this time. "Jack?" She tilts her head and gives a little mock pout. "Please, Jack?"

The Doctor takes his dessert back with a frown. "Go on, then, Captain. I know you can't resist it when she pouts."

"Speak for yourself, Doc!"

Rose puts her elbows on the rink wall, rests her chin in her hands. "Aw, Doctor! Please?"

"Your mistress calls." Jack grins.

The Doctor scowls, but his scowl seems more directed at the last two bites of his bun than at either of them. "You got sugary fingerprints all over my bun," he says to Jack, showing off the offending marks. "It's not as pretty any more. Ah well." He shrugs, pops the rest of the dessert in his mouth. "All right, let's go."

The Doctor catches Jack by the crook of the elbow. Jack resists his forward motion. "You go," he says. "I'll watch you guys. Have a great time."

"Oh no you don't," the Doctor says, "I'm not leaving you alone out here." At Jack's attempt to protest, he elaborates: "If I'm falling on my arse out there, so are you."

The Doctor strides towards the skate-rental shack squatted by the side of the ice, Jack helplessly in tow.

Rose grins to see them preparing to join her, and gives a little clap. "Hurry up! I'm getting c-c-cold just standing 'round waiting for you lot!"

The Doctor marches directly to the rental counter. Jack follows, but less than enthusiastically. Winter and ice and snow really aren't exactly his favorite things. Cold he can handle--nights on the Boeshane could be plenty cold, and some of the ships he spent time on as a young soldier weren't exactly snug and warm, either. But the sight of ice and snow raises memories he'd rather keep buried.

Still, Jack armors up with a grin and waits for the attendant to size-scan his feet. He gets his skates and he walks over to where the Doctor's sprawled on the ground, one long leg kicked out in front of him, the other pulled in close so he can do up the laces on his borrowed black skate. Jack sits down beside him.

"So," the Doctor says, in a low voice, "You gonna be all right?"

Jack scoffs as he begins tugging on his left skate. "Of course. Are you?"

"I mean it," the Doctor says. Jack suddenly finds himself under the Doctor's fierce scrutiny. He shrugs, attempts nonchalance.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're from the Boeshane Peninsula."

The Doctor's tone is no less playful than Jack's was when he put forth that fact earlier, but Jack stiffens, realizing the Doctor knows just why he's no big fan of winter. He's a Time Lord, after all, aware on some level, at least, of all of time and space. Why shouldn't he know that three days before alien hostiles came to the Boeshane Peninsula, winter arrived in a place that never had winter?

"We all thought it was so great," Jack says, quietly. "The whole of the bay froze. It was snowing. Even the grownups were like kids, catching snowflakes on their tongue, slipping and spinning out on the ice. But you know what it was? Those alien bastards just wanted to kill off the only indigenous lifeform that posed any threat to them--A sandflea. A little, blood-sucking sandflea. As for us--well."

The Doctor's hand lands on his shoulder, squeezes. Jack looks at him, grateful. The Doctor reaches into his pocket, produces something that catches the light, makes Jack squint. He extends the shiny object to Jack. It's a key.

"You can wait for us in the TARDIS if you like, Captain. We won't be too long, I promise."

Jack takes the key, unable to breathe. Somehow he finds enough air to say "Thanks, Doc." And then he shakes his head. "But I'm going out there."

The Doctor looks at him. "You sure?"

"Yeah," Jack says. "Thanks." He offers the key back to the Doctor, who shakes his head.

"That's yours, now," the Doctor says, and Jack can't help the smile that takes over.

"Thanks," he repeats, not able to think of anything more eloquent.

The Doctor stands, offers him a hand up.

The two of them hobble towards the ice, where Rose's gleeful whoop greets them. Jack takes a deep breath, eyeballs the wide, white expanse of the ice and tries to ignore the thundering of his heart.

The Doctor's fingers, squeezing his, catch his attention.

"Come on, lad," the Doctor says. "I've got you."

Jack pushes off on one foot, teeters dangerously next to the Doctor, clinging to the Doctor's hand. The Doctor is true to his word, keeps Jack up on his feet. Jack hazards a smile. Goes a little faster. The Doctor keeps pace, and then Rose too, taking up his free hand.

Jack skates. And for a little while, he forgets about Boeshane Bay frozen all those years ago; for a little while, he makes new, happy memories, skating and laughing and falling and being pulled to his feet by the Doctor and Rose.


End file.
